Missing: One Arab Altalena...
By Gerald A. Honigman (07/11/05)
Well, I think it's now safe to say that the Egyptian ghoul is finally out of the picture.
The problem, of course, is that the problem has always gone far beyond Arafat himself. He was simply carrying a local banner of an age-old Arabism which rejects the rights of any of the millions of non-Arab peoples conquered in its name to a share in what Arabs have declared to be "purely Arab patrimony." No "partitions" or "compromises" either.
Whether the subject is black Africans in the Sudan, Kurds in Syria or Iraq, Copts in Egypt, Berbers in North Africa, native kilab yahud "Jew dogs," or anyone else who might have dared to claim a small slice of the Middle East pie after the collapse of the four century-old Ottoman Turkish Empire in the wake of World War I, Arabs have treated all would-be national competitors similarly...with, admittedly, a bit more disdain for the Jews, who were singled out for vilification in the Qur'an and other religious teachings of Islam as well.
So, now that he pollutes the soil from Jerusalem sprinkled onto his coffin in Ramallah, nothing has really changed.
The past years of the Oslo "peace," in which Israel was pressured to yield hard tangibles, like disputed territory, to Arabs who were supposed to in turn curtail terrorism and prepare their people for acceptance of a Jewish state in the neighborhood, were spent doing the exact opposite by Arafat and his buddies instead. The Palestinian Authority proved to be no different than Hamas or Islamic Jihad on these crucial matters. The schools, mosques, media, websites, and other potential sources for good were simply used to nurture a rabid hatred of Jews.
That brings us to Arafat's two Fatah colleagues now running the show.
Mahmoud Abbas--Abu Mazen--and Ahmed Qurei'--Abu Alaa are former and present chief marionettes of the now dead master puppeteer. But even though he's now gone, his legacy is still working the strings.
Both have been referred to by a wishful-thinking West as "moderates."
True, at times they have nominally condemned suicide/homicide bombers...but so did Arafat. Yet they have been a bit more vocal about this and openly admitted their reason: bad press. Deliberately disemboweling and blowing apart Jewish babes and other innocents was not the concern, nor living up to the terms Oslo. The bad public relations that these incidents cause (in at least some circles) was and is the issue yielding any relative "moderation" here.
Keep in mind that Abu Mazen is a Holocaust denier, Abu Alaa has been quoted as refusing to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State, and both, for decades, worked along side of Arafat for the destruction of Israel.
Abbas, Qurei', & Co. think that they're going to flood Israel with millions of alleged "returning" Arab refugees. Note, please, that said refugees were created as a result of the invasion of Israel by a half dozen Arab states in 1948, and that half of Israel's Jews were refugees from "Arab" lands but without some two dozen other states of their own--as Arabs have--to potentially choose from.
Also understand that nobody accuses Abbas or Qurei' of stupidity. So they tell the West what it wants to hear--even if most really don't care but want to a least go through the motions so that after Auschwitz and Munich they can feel better about themselves and the consequences of their actions.
As is well known, the model moderate that the two Abus' Palestinian Authority showcased was the late Faisal al-Husseini. He spoke of any peace dealings with the Jews as being merely a Trojan Horse that would lead to Israel's total destruction as a Jewish State and the creation of an Arab Palestine "from the River to the Sea." Take a close look at the maps of "Palestine" on the Palestinian Authority's websites, insignias, and so forth. They cover all of Israel, not just the disputed, non-apportioned lands of the original Mandate on the West Bank and in Gaza. Arafat and others have repeatedly called Oslo a modern "Peace of the Quraysh," the temporary hudna the Prophet Muhammad agreed to until he gained enough strength to deal the final blow to his enemies.
Nothing has changed now that Arafat is gone. Any leader who truly talks and wants peace with the Jews--not that the two Abus actually fit into this mold--will not long be of this world in this rejectionist, bloodlust milieu. Shots were fired at Abbas, killing others instead, not long after Arafat's funeral, despite the denials. Just the perception that a leader might be contemplating something beyond rejection of Jews is enough to get him killed.
While the predicament of such leaders is understandable, Israel cannot be asked to do what any other nation would not be expected to do to accommodate these folks.
Whether they like it or not, the ball is now in the Arab court. Given the murderous mindset--polls have shown that even if Israel would withdraw from every inch of the disputed territories, most Arabs would still support terrorism and Israel's destruction--Israel can yield no further concretes on the ground until the Arabs' own leaders display a willingness to deal forcefully with the murderous rejectionists in their midsts. If they do not, then they likely reveal their own rejectionism as well. Other nations are not expected to yield strategic assets to enemies sworn to their demise for the sake of nice but confusing, empty words backed up with no action. Don't expect Jews, in their sole, microscopic State, to do this either.
If the two Abus and future Arab leaders are serious about ending this tragic conflict and creating a better world for their own people--instead of just trying to butcher more Jews--let's proceed to see what really needs to be done...
Early in May 1948, surrounding Arab countries, armed to the teeth with weaponry left over by the British in World War II, invaded a reborn Israel to nip it in the bud. Transjordan's army was even led by British officers. And since we're on the subject, it needs to stated yet once again, for the sake of any newcomers on these matters, that purely Arab Transjordan was created itself in 1922 from over 75% of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine. Arabs had rejected the 1947 partition plan which would have given them about one half of the 20% of the Mandate that was left after having already received the lion's share in 1922. The dilemma today is thus over the creation of the Arabs' second, not first, state in "Palestine"... almost two dozen total to date.
So much for the Arab claim that Jews got all the land. So the Jews had no choice but to immediately emerge out of the shock of the Holocaust in order to deal with yet another harsh reality.
David Ben-Gurion, leader of the new state, made countless historic decisions, but one particularly controversial and painful one that haunts Israel to this very day involved the ship Altalena--a pen name for his Labor Zionist Party's rival, the late Ze'ev Vladimir Jabotinsky. Unlike many of his Labor critics, Jabotinsky was less starry-eyed about what could and couldn't be achieved with the Arabs, who were as rejectionist back then as they are today regarding any compromise over "purely Arab patrimony."
Jabotinsky's heirs were determined to repay the Arab slaughter of Jews in kind and to hasten the end of British rule and anti-Israel policies by any means necessary. Among other things, they purchased an American ship and landed it near Marseilles, France. It was expected that the vessel would be making repeat trips between France and Israel carrying arms and new recruits gathered from the survivors of Europe's nightmare and the frightened mellahs of kilab yahud--"Jew Dog"--existence in Arab North Africa and the Middle East.
Israel desperately needed the arms and manpower aboard the Altalena. But Ben-Gurion insisted that there would be but one unified command. On June 20th, Ben-Gurion made a highly controversial, heart-wrenching decision to resist the Irgun's challenge concerning the ship's precious human and material cargo. In the ensuing tragic battle (which some today say was really not warranted) Jews were killed by Jews for the sake of shaping the infant state's future and character.
Up until now, Hamas was Hamas and Arafat was Arafat. Both played a game of good cop/bad cop with the Jews to yield unilateral Israeli concessions which only resulted in the deliberate spilling of more innocent Jewish blood. Neither had any intention of arriving at a settlement in which a viable Israel would exist on the morrow. That has been proven over and over again, and there's no need to repeat the evidence about Camp David 2000 and Taba, etc., etc., and so forth.
A better tomorrow for both Jew and Arab alike --and, hopefully, other peoples abused in the region by Arabs as well--will not arrive unless new leaders arise in the would-be 22nd Arab state with the power and will to make the decisions a stateless and millennially persecuted people and its leaders--at the end of their collective rope--made fifty-seven years ago. What will such leaders do the day after the next Egged bus blows up loaded with innocent Jews aboard, or another father is murdered having dinner with his children? Even during the alleged current "ceasefire," numerous mortar rounds and Kassem rockets have been launched from PA-controlled territories against Israeli towns--in Israel proper--causing injury, death, and destruction. Hitchhiking Jewish teenagers have been gunned down in cold blood...and the two Abus do nothing.
The Hamas leopard will not change its spots. So merely "chatting" with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa, and their likes won't solve the problem...and this is all that Arafat's successors still say that they're willing to do. The two Abus are still demanding unilateral concessions from Israel before taking far more seriously their crucial end of the deal.
Until Arabs make clear their intention to live peacefully--not in just a temporary hudna designed to further their retained destruction-in-phases goals--alongside a secure, Jewish Israel with concrete measures that are actually taken to stop the murder of Jews, promotion of hatred and violence among their masses, and so forth, then Israel should not be expected to become a party to its own demise by caving into Arab demands and those of the hypocrites elsewhere who support them.
America must resist the temptation to cave in to its European allies and their Arabist Foggy Bottom supporters on these matters. Britain's Tony Blair put the squeeze on Mr. Bush practically before all the votes were tabulated in the President's reelection. And he's the relative good guy compared to most of the others whom we're dealing with. But Mr. Bush himself has recently backed away from his previous stance which called for the support of U.N. Resolution 242's call for the creation of secure and recognized borders to replace Israel's vulnerable, 9-mile wide, 1949 armistice line existence.
No other country would demand less under the circumstances Israel has been faced with. Indeed, most of those European and Russian sponsors of the roadmap would have leveled Gaza and Ramallah a long time ago if they had been subjected to what they expect Jews to continuously tolerate. Not to mention what America itself has done to its own enemies.
Peace will come only when the Arabs are willing to confront their own problems the way perpetually persecuted and decimated Jews did.
What's missing, you see, is one Arab Altalena.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Gerald A. Honigman
